Emerson Etem couldn’t learn to ice skate on the Colorado Lagoon near his home because, well, everyone knows the water never gets cold enough to freeze in Long Beach.

Instead, his parents enrolled him in roller hockey classes at a local YMCA when he was 3 years old.

Back in the mid-1990s, Etem’s parents didn’t know the difference between in-line and the goal line, but they knew all about Wayne Gretzky.

Etem’s family might have never given hockey a second thought, but 25 years ago, on Aug. 9, 1988, the Kings acquired Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers in a trade that changed the hockey landscape in Southern California immediately, dramatically and immeasurably.

In one afternoon, with the arrival of the game’s greatest player and its biggest icon, hockey went from cult status to mainstream sport in the land of beaches and palm trees. The impact of the deal continues to be felt today, and that’s perhaps Gretzky’s greatest legacy.

For Etem, roller staking led to in-line hockey at the Y, which led to ice hockey in Lakewood, which led to high school hockey in Minnesota, which led to a junior-level team in Canada, which led to a first-round selection by the Ducks, which led to a regular shift in the NHL last season.

If not for Gretzky’s influence, Etem might be playing baseball for the Angels or soccer for the Galaxy instead of hockey for the Ducks. He might have gravitated to the sports his friends and neighbors all played, the “ball and grass sports,” as he referred to baseball and soccer.

“I’ve never met him, but if I ever do, I’d like to say, ‘Thank you,’” Etem said of Gretzky.

Meet a new generation of hockey players, definitely not the same as the old one. Call them the Gretzky Generation, a collection of Southern Californians who benefited from the explosive growth and interest in youth hockey following the Great One’s arrival.

Etem is a 21-year-old forward for the Ducks.

Beau Bennett, Etem’s age-group teammate from Gardena and a fellow first-round draft pick in 2010, plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Jonathan Blum, another Long Beach native and a first-round selection in ‘07, is a defenseman with the Minnesota Wild.

“Myself and Beau and the guys coming up and in the NHL already, we’re kind of the first wave of players,” Etem said. “I think this is just the first wave and there are going to be more and more of us coming up. Because of us, a lot of kids coming up, know it’s possible now.”

To be sure, on Aug. 8, 1988, there were youngsters playing hockey in Southern California and dreaming of an NHL career. There just weren’t as many of them as there were the next day, and the next and the next, according to longtime Kings TV analyst Jim Fox.

Fox played for the Kings in the years before Gretzky’s arrival and then worked for the team’s community relations department while rehabilitating an injury in 1988-89. Fox saw the Gretzky Effect on youth hockey firsthand, and it was startling.

“There were youth teams, but they were the Red Wings or the Maple Leafs,” Fox recalled. “There was no team called the Junior Kings. As a byproduct of Wayne’s coming, we had to have a program with our name on it. The next step was to create a Junior Kings program.

“Before Wayne came, there wasn’t a thought in anyone’s mind to have a program. When he came, it became necessary. No one gave it a second thought. I’d like to think it could have been Mario Lemieux or Mike Modano, who could have done that, but I don’t know that they could have.

“You needed that seminal moment and Wayne’s coming was it.”

There was a dramatic learning curve in the late 1980s. Fox recalled during the first Kings youth camp he had to help some youngsters put on their gear because it was new to them. They had never worn shoulder pads. In time, their knowledge of the gear and the game caught up to their enthusiasm, however.

Several years ago, at a Kings charity event, a man approached Fox and told him he attended that first summer camp. He then introduced Fox to his young son, a 4-year-old who was just starting to play the game.

“That’s the domino effect,” Fox said. “Wayne did it. He’s the guy. He was that spark.”

Etem played with the Junior Kings before starting his junior-level career with Medicine Hat (Alberta) of the Western Hockey League. So did Bennett before he went to play junior hockey in British Columbia and then college hockey at the University of Denver.

Bobby Ryan, a former Ducks forward who was traded this summer to the Ottawa Senators, also played with the Junior Kings while living in El Segundo. Blum played with the California Wave, another local age-group team, before joining the Vancouver (B.C.) Giants of the WHL.

It’s difficult for anyone to say precisely how many age-group players and how many youth teams there are in Southern California today. It’s even hard to say how many new rinks have been built since 1988. Everyone agrees the numbers are growing and there’s no end in sight.

The Junior Kings program could have as many as 450 players on 27 teams for 2013-14, according to executive director Kelly Sorensen. Coaches include former NHL players like Rob Blake, Valeri Bure, Nelson Emerson and Jamie Storr. NHL player agent Pat Brisson also is a coach.

“Gretzky started the momentum, he opened the doors,” Sorensen said.

Kids continue to pour through, and not all of them are Kings fans.

Or boys, for that matter.

The Ducks’ youth program is based at the team’s Anaheim Ice facility, one of seven rinks in a chain that stretches from Lakewood to Corona. The program includes the Junior Ducks, a counterpart to the Junior Kings, and also the Lady Ducks for girls.

There are about 100 teams with roughly 1,500 players based at Anaheim Ice, according to vice president Art Trottier. It’s hard to know exactly how many players there are playing ice and in-line hockey at any given moment at all seven rinks, Trottier added.

Meanwhile, the Ducks-sponsored high school league will grow to 27 teams this season, up from 14 in 2012-13, and will include teams from outside Orange County. Ex-NHL players Jason Marshall and Craig Johnson are among the high school coaches.

“It’s growing, it’s all moving in the right direction,” Trottier said.

Stanley Cup championships for the Kings in 2012 and the Ducks in ‘07 set a high standard.

Now, the big numbers are producing big results at the youth levels. Last year, for instance, a team from Los Angeles won a prestigious international youth tournament in Quebec. This year, a team from Orange County won the United States high school championship.

“Kids are connected to hockey in this market more so than even in Canada,” Sorensen said. “In Canada, the ice gets taken out of the rinks in the summer. The kids play baseball or soccer or in-line hockey in the summer. Hockey is a year-round phenomenon in Southern California.”

Sorensen, from a small Canadian town, and Trottier, from Detroit, can each see a day when California born and trained players are commonplace on NHL rosters. They know it won’t be long before there are more Emerson Etems and Beau Bennetts skating regular shifts.

The two youth administrators are not alone.

Standing in the locker room of an NHL team that might not have existed and playing with a teammate who might have gone a different route if Gretzky hadn’t been traded 25 years ago, Ducks forward Saku Koivu didn’t have to use his imagination when asked about the future.

He’s seen it in the form of the Ducks and in the person of Etem.

“I think the game has grown tremendously in Southern California the last couple of years,” Koivu said. “My own kid is playing and they have great programs here. So, for sure, you’ll wait another five, 10, 15 years, and you’ll see a lot of California kids playing (in the NHL).

“I’m sure they’re going to have a huge impact.”

When a reporter asked for details about his son’s game, Koivu held up his hand.

“Let’s take it easy now, he’s only 6,” Koivu said in mock terror.

It’s easy to imagine the young son of a veteran NHL player following the same route as his father. It wasn’t always so easy to think a youngster from a beach town and with zero family connection to the sport could become a professional hockey player.

Thanks to Gretzky’s arrival, it’s no longer a leap of faith. One need only to watch Etem and his peers skating, passing and shooting pucks at the highest level of the game to realize that one man and one event can change the course of history.

“I think if you could sit Wayne down and explain it to him, he’d have a smile on his face,” TV analyst Fox said. “It’s not in his personality to think about his impact that way, but if you gave him the chance to look back, I think he’d have a smile on his face.

Elliott Teaford is an award-winning hockey reporter based in Southern California who covered the L.A. Kings when they won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and in '14, and the Anaheim Ducks' Cup win in 2007. He grew up playing outdoors on the streets of Philadelphia. He also watched the Flyers bully their way to consecutive Stanley Cups in the 1970s, and makes no excuses for their quasi-legal play.

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